Which cookbooks to keep when you’re moving or pruning

October 21, 2013 by
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There's a good read from the Guardian's Australia FoodBlog on what makes for a great cookbook. In Cooking up a classic: What's the recipe for a timeless cookery book? Sarah Bejamin writes that "Authority, style and innovation are the main ingredients characterising the cookbooks that have stood the test of time." The article highlights some classic Australian authors that would be… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Joy of Kosher

October 20, 2013 by
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Jamie Geller has created an entire media microcosm around cooking fast and delicious Kosher food. She's authored the Quick & Kosher Cookbook series (including Quick & Kosher: Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing)  and is co- founder of the Kosher Media Network, which recently launched the Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller Magazine and companion website JoyofKosher.com, a social network… read more

The math proves that bacon is the single greatest ingredient

October 18, 2013 by
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  Opinions may count a lot, but Wired, working the Food Network, has mathematically proved that bacon is the single greatest ingredient. In Math Proves Bacon is the Miracle Food, they  crunched 49,733 recipes and 906,539 comments to prove that bacon added the greatest benefit of any single ingredient. The only categories that bacon did not work its magic on… read more

New EYB feature: Discovering independent cookbook stores

October 17, 2013 by
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It's a pretty safe bet that every one of our members would love to spend time exploring bookstores that specialize in cookbooks. And so we've decided to offer a new EYB feature highlighting those  stores. Now you can discover (or get reacquainted with) a store near your home - or plan a new target destination when you travel. And to… read more

Quick question: Does slamming an oven door cause a cake to fall?

October 16, 2013 by
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ATK's Feed posed a good question recently, especially timely as we head into baking season: "Does Slamming an Oven Door Cause Cakes to Collapse?" And the answer? In a word, no.  According to them, "The sturdy muffins emerged unharmed, as did the yellow cake. Even the notoriously fragile angel food cake and the soufflé survived the vigorous slamming. Why? A properly… read more

Famous chefs recommend cookbooks to improve your life

October 15, 2013 by
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Self-help books seem to always dominate non-fiction best seller lists, so it's rather intriguing to find this collection from BuzzFeedFood of 19 Cookbooks That Will Improve Your Life. There is one caveat, though - you'll need to cook all the way through them (remember Julie and Julia?). But even if that's too daunting, this list of cookbooks recommended by well-known… read more

Testing food-saving gadgets

October 14, 2013 by
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  Prolonging the shelf life of produce makes sense for any number of reasons - saving money, miminimizing food waste, helping the environment, limiting trips to the grocery store, providing incentives to eat more fruits and vegetables. So food gadgets that promise to keep produce fresher longer are always tempting to buy. To help decide whether to invest in these… read more

The apple mystery story gets a little less mysterious

October 13, 2013 by
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With  apple season in full flower (at least in the U.S. and Canada), we wanted to bring attention to a great story that Mother Jones ran earlier this year. But, first, we wanted to wish all our Canadian brethren a very happy Thanksgiving. The article, Why Your Supermarket Only Sells 5 Kinds of Apples, profiles a modern-day apple detective. As… read more

Taking food instagrams may make the food less satisfying

October 11, 2013 by
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The Atlantic recently reported on  research done by the Journal of Consumer Psychology on the effects of taking photos of your food before eating it: "Study: We'll Enjoy Food More If You Don't Instagram It."* As has been proven by many diet studies regarding satiaty, the flavor of food decreases the more you eat it - the first bite always… read more

Do eggs really need to be at room temperature?

October 10, 2013 by
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We were making muffins recently and noticed that the eggs were supposed to be at room temperature when, of course, we hadn't taken them out. So this posting from America's Test Kitchen, "Do Cold Eggs Ruin Baked Goods?" seemed especially timely. The answer, with a few exceptions, is not really, especially when it comes to taste. The exceptions were pound, angel… read more

Fortuitous kitchen mistakes

October 9, 2013 by
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We think most people (at least secretly) love lists - especially those that involve food. And this list from First We Feast of 15 Delicious Things That were Invented By Mistake is one of our recent favorites. The invention of chocolate chip cookies is a fairly well-known story, and beer had to be a  great mistake (it was probably a… read more

Getting the inside scoop on the Food Network

October 8, 2013 by
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There's a new book out, From Scratch: Inside the Food Network by Allen Salkin, that describes the 20 years that the Food Network has been on. The Daily Meal has produced an interesting slideshow -  20 Surprising Facts about Food Network and Its Stars - that watchers may not be aware of. Here are five that we found  especially  interesting:… read more

A cookbook so unique it has its own movie trailer

October 7, 2013 by
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It's not often we get to quote from the Financial Times in this blog, but they have a intriguing interview with Heston Blumenthal about a new book he's publishing in November. It actually can be considered an old-new book. Called Historic Heston, it's a collection of British recipes from the Middle Ages to Victorian times. According to the FT, "What immediately… read more

The amazing popularity of chicken

October 6, 2013 by
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If you asked people (meat eaters) what meat they most often eat, it wouldn't be surprising if they answered "chicken." But, even so, we were really surprised with the information in Fooducate's article "Are Chickens Taking Over the World?" They, in turn, referred to an article in Mother Jones, Has the World Reached Peak Chicken?, which included a number of charts and… read more

Microwave mug cakes

October 4, 2013 by
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  Somehow we've previously missed the concept of microwave mug cakes - which are exactly what they sound like - super quick cakes you bake in the microwave in a coffee mug. Since these sound like an excellent addition to a comfort food reportoire, we decided to look into them a bit. After a little research, it does appear that… read more

Cooking for a holiday that comes once every 70,000 years

October 3, 2013 by
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While Thanksgivukkah is still a bit off, given its rarity, it may be necessary to do a little more planning than usual to honor this unique holiday. Thanksgivukkah occurs this year as the first day of Hanukkah falls on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday (which, if we just changed  to coincide with the Canadian Thanksgiving in October, would  stand on its own… read more

10 wonderful British food terms

October 2, 2013 by
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First, let us welcome back the Food News Journal, which everyday publishes links to interesting food items. They've been on hiatus and it's great to see them again. And it's thanks to them that we came across this fun news item from the Miami New Times blog: 10 Adorable British Foodisms We Should All Adopt.  They give longer descriptions of… read more

The chicken-less egg & Bill Gates

October 1, 2013 by
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The L.A. Times recently asked - and answered: "What happens when Bill Gates attacks world hunger? Chicken-less eggs." In the article, they describe how Gates (founder of Microsoft) is now turning his philanthropic attention to world hunger. And one of his approaches is to encourage meat substitutes, "Raising meat takes a great deal of land and water and has a… read more

Paying tribute to Marcella Hazan

September 30, 2013 by
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We've been reading the tributes to Marcella Hazan that have been published since she passed away yesterday and were struck by some fascinating items about this preeminent teacher of Italian cuisine. First and foremost, she was as much a teacher as a chef - one of the most effective in preaching and spreading the gospel of authentic Italian cuisine. As… read more

Quick ways to soften butter

September 29, 2013 by
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Among the most notable pet peeves in a kitchen has to be this overlooked description in a recipe: "butter, softened" - and all you have is cold, hard butter. So here's some quick ways on how to solve this problem with minimal angst: Cut the butter into small chunks and set out at room temperature Grate the butter (especially good… read more

Comparing Child’s, Fisher’s, and Beard’s First French Meals

September 27, 2013 by
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M.F.K. Fisher's great-nephew Luke Barr has written a book called    Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste which discusses a time when the esteemed culinarians James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones were all together in the South of France. Grub Street has excerpted some  of the book, specifically… read more

Cantaloupe is only one of many fruits that can be roasted to heighten flavor

September 26, 2013 by
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Over the past several months, we've noticed a number of recipes that suggest roasting fruit to maximize flavor - even restoring flavor in dull fruit. Roasting vegetables - cauliflower, green beans, even tomatoes - is fairly obvious, but fruit? Of course, it does make sense - roasting caramelized the inherent sugars in food. But there's the possible problem of destroying… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Regional Cooking of Italy

September 25, 2013 by
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We're so pleased to be able to offer a five-book collection of Valentina Harris' great Italian regional cookbooks, assembled in one collection as the Regional Cooking of Italy.  In the collection is The Food and Cooking of Tuscany, The Food and Cooking of Sicily and Southern Italy, The Food and Cooking of Venice and the North-East of Italy, The Food… read more

Meeting Valentina Harris

September 25, 2013 by
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Certainly to our U.K. readers, where she is such a well-respected authority on Italian food and food culture, Valentina Harris needs no introduction. For anyone who hasn't met her, she has been writing award-winning cookbooks since 1984, when she published Perfect Pasta. She's now written  over 30 books on Italian food,and still finds time to host  culinary adventures across Europe. Five… read more

Cookbook giveaway – The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation

September 20, 2013 by
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Mollie Katzen's latest book, The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation, is her first really new vegetarian collection since the 1990's. We're delighted to be able to offer one of three copies to our members in a Cookbook giveaway series. (Remember you can check  on all of the giveaways by just looking in the right-hand category column… read more
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